I'm in Florida at the nation's longest running state folk festival. It is held at Stephen Foster State Park in White Springs on the Suwannee River.

The Florida Folk Festival began with the music: It was 1953, and Pete Seeger and the Weavers had a big hit with Leadbelly’s “Goodnight, Irene.” Folk music was exploding with acoustic guitar, coffee houses, banjos, beatniks and sing-alongs. Now some 70 years later, the Florida Folk Festival is still held every Memorial Day weekend, and you’re sure to hear plenty of folk music. But the event has broadened to celebrate Florida’s land, people and diverse cultural heritage. In addition to a full schedule of performances, you’ll find plenty to amuse and educate. The festival focuses on traditional crafts — everything from split rail fences to henna tattoos. And the food is not the same-as-everywhere festival food. Look for blue crab burritos, Jamaican patties, shrimp gumbo or Beulah Baptist Church’s chicken and dumplings dinner.

This year's schedule at the link.

Afternoon folks!

I hope everybody is having a good holiday weekend. To that end, here's some good stuff for you guys to check out.

There's a Clarence Gatemouth Brown album and a great Sippie Wallace album from the 80's with Bonnie Raitt guesting. After that we've got a bunch of blues rock with Paul Butterfield in his post Butterfield Blues Band period followed by a classic album by The Band. After that there's a compilation of some early Duane and Greg Allman recordings followed by Delaney & Bonnie. We finish up with some prog rock from Nektar.

Enjoy!

“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
Pablo Picasso

A picture can be worth a thousand words. Or the beginning of a new path of thought to explore.

When Johnny:

I believe Memorial Day is a good thing, honoring those who have fallen in our endless and often stupid wars. It's not their fault they fought, they died and they should be honored for doing so. Of course, there should be a day for honoring protesters too, those who fought, got hurt, died. Heh, I'm dreaming.

A few weeks ago, I was listening to some songs off old cds and vinyl I'd moved to my computer. I came across Steve Earle and the Pogues singing 'Johnny Come Lately' back in the late 80's.

Here's a good video featuring the song. And here's a link to a video about how Earle and the Pogues recorded the song.

Searching is half the fun: life is much more manageable when thought of as a scavenger hunt
as opposed to a surprise party.
— Jimmy Buffett